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PERCEPTION OF 
CHILDREN 



WILL S. MONROE 

Professor of Psychology in the 

State Normai, School, Westfield, Mass. 



REPRINTED FROM 

THE PEDAGOGICAL SEMINARY 
December, 1904, Vol. XI, pp. 498-507 



^1 






PERCEPTION OF CHILDREN. 



PERCEPTION OF CHILDREN. 



By Wii,i. S. Monroe, State Normal School, Westfield, Mass. 



During the past century, sense-training, in one form or an- 
other, has occupied a commanding place in all modern schemes 
of elementary education. Pestalozzi was the first great educa- 
tor to recognize in practice that sensations pour into the child's 
mind from the hour of his birth; and that during the years of 
most rapid brain growth, he lives mentally an essentially sense 
life. 

Frobel and Pestalozzi in their systems of education provided, 
accordingly, for these nascent periods of sense development and 
they devised definite and formal schemes for the apprehension 
and perception of the raw meterials thus furnished to the 
young mind by the senses. Their schemes outlined a more or 
less orderly approach to the study of concrete objects through 
color, form, size, material, arrangement of parts, and the like. 

This order was supposed to follow the child's line of interest 
and to represent a logical order of development; and for a hun- 
dred years the followers of Pestalozzi and Frobel have studi- 
ously followed this order in object lessons and kindergarten 
exercises. Fifteen years ago Professor Alfred Binet, (4) of the 
University of Paris, raised the question of the qualities of ob- 
jects of most interest to children; and, in consequence, the 
most readily perceived. Observations were made on two little 
girls in his own family, aged respectively, two and a half and 
four and a half years. He asked them what they meant by 
common words which he heard them frequently use — such as 
horse, clock, bottle, etc., — and he wrote down exactly what 
they said. 

After an interval of time he repeated the same list; and after 
fifteen such repetitions, he collated his results, which show 
that the greatest interests lay first in the use of the common ob- 
jects, and secondly in their movements. They almost never de- 
scribed an object by telling its color, form, size, material and 
structure. They gave not the qualities of the object, but what 
the object was good for and what it could do. 

Professor Earl Barnes (i) was the first in America to call at- 
tention to the results^ of Professor Binet's study, and to point 
out that not only does our work in elementary science concern 
itself with common objects in the chiM's environment, but that 



PERCEPTION OP CHILDREN. 3 

most of the work in reading, number, and language is of a con- 
crete character and is carried on in connection with common 
objects. 

Professor Barnes verified the results of Binet by repeating 
the test with two thousand California school children between 
the ages of six and sixteen years. He prepared a list of thirty- 
three common words such as knife, bread, doll, water, hat, 
garden, table, bird, dog, clock, etc. Teachers were requested 
to dictate the list at the time of the spelling lesson. The chil- 
dren were simply asked to tell what is so and so. Teachers 
were requested to give no other directions; and they were cau- 
tioned against asking the children to define the words. 

The rubrics under which the children's answers were grouped, 
and the percentages falling under each group, were as follows : 
Use, 50%; larger term (concept), 18%; substance (material), 
9%; action, 4%; structure, 4%; quality, 4%; place, 4%; 
form, 2%; color, less than 1%. Use was a dominant interest with 
the youngest children. At the age of six years, 77% of these 
children define common words by telling their use. At the age 
of nine, use is given by 63% of the children; at twelve years, 
42% and at fifteen years, 33%. Concept, or larger term, in- 
creases with advance in years : At the age of six, it is given 
by less than 5% of the children; at nine years, 11%; at twelve 
years, 18%; and at fifteen years, 40%. The striking fact in 
Professor Barnes's study is the small place occupied by color, 
form, size, and the other traditional rubrics. 

I provided 2,191 children in the elementary schools of Mass- 
achusetts with cancelled two-cent postage stamps; and during 
a period customarily devoted to language work, the children 
were requested to "write an account of this postage stamp so 
that one who had never seen it would know all about it." 
From twenty to thirty minutes were given for the exercise. 
Returns were received from 985 boys and from 1,206 girls. 
The children ranged in age from seven to seventeen years. The 
following papers are given as fairly typical. 

Girl, 8 years old : "The postage stamp has a picture in it. 
The postage stamp costs two cents. It says united states 
postage on it. The man has hair braided in back of his head. 
The Boarder is round. It has arms on it. The shape is square. 
The color is red. The man is White. You can get these to the 
postice [post-ofiice] for two cents. There are lines around the 
boarder. The back of the stamp is white. It has nomber 2 on 
each side of it. The man has long hair." 

Boy, 16 years old : "Comments on the accompanying U. S. 
of America 2 cent Postage Stamp [Heading], i. Its meaning: 
The Postage stamps have glorious history. In the past 57 years 
they have been more and more useful until now they are not 



4 PERCEPTION OF CHILDREN. 

only absolutely necessary, but constitute one of the great helps 
in the study of Geography, and one of the noblest pleasures for 
thousands and millions of People; Kings and Queens as well as 
children in the most miserable social condition. 

"2. This Postage Stamp has the red color and is now next 
to the one penny stamp of Great Britain the most extensively 
used stamp used in the world. If I am not wrong its circula- 
tion in the past and present is the next largest of all others. 
The one penny stamp, I think has the first place. 

"3. Its surroundings are very interesting. It is mounted 
on a piece of paper, remainder of an envelope, which fact easily 
indicates that it is used in the most cases for letter correspond- 
ence. I notice that it has two imprints (that it is used), on 
one of them I recognize the indication that it is used in one 
Massachusetts Post oflSce. What is the meaning of the other 
imprint, if not the No. of the Post OflSce in a larger city, I 
cannot imagine. 

"4. The Stamp itself. An approximately rectangular piece 
of paper colored red with the picture of the head of Washington 
printed in the middle, just below and on the left and right sides 
the numerals 2—2, and below in letters TWO CENTS, Just 
above the head in one are the words 'United States of Amer- 
ica' in white. Other ornamentations are introduced here and 
there. It remains now after doing its faithful service ready to 
go in some album or else in some other collection of comrade- 
stamps. 

"5. Some particular observations. I had 500-600 of them 
at home which my cousin had the kindness to send me. Of 
course they are of no special value, but yet the)^ teach my little 
brothers the important lesson that such a little thing, like a 
stamp, will do all the necessary things for the transportation 
of a letter or other mail matter from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
It is very interesting to me that with the march of civilization 
the great Postal system of the World has increased its actions 
more and more until it is now one of the chief functions under 
the sun. How much this single stamp has done I cannot say, 
but I know that some stamps, precisely like this, have done 
great service to the country." 

The compositions were read and the descriptions collated 
under the following rubrics : llse, substance, color, form, size, 
cancellation mark, perforation, portrait correctly named, word- 
inscriptions, number-inscriptions, decorations, and miscella- 
neous. 

The word-inscriptions ("United States" and "two cents") 
were oftenest given by the children, having been mentioned by 
about 70% of the whole number; and the number-inscription 
(the two "2's") came third in frequency, having been given 



PERCEPTION OF CHILDREN. 



by about 60% of the children. At the age of seven years, 
word-inscriptions were given by 9% of the boys and 30% of 
the girls with marked increase with advance in years. The 
number-inscriptions were given by 25% of the boys and 30% 
of the girls; there was increase with advance in years, but 
this increase was less marked than in the case of the word-in- 
scriptions. When one recalls the emphasis placed upon learn- 
ing to recognize words and numbers during the early years of 
the elementary school course, little importance can be attached 
to these two rubrics. 

The eight diagrams which accompany this article indicate 
the other dominant lines of interest. The figures on the left 
side of the diagrams indicate percentages, and the figures at 
the top of the diagrams indicate ages. The continuous lines 
represent the boys and the broken lines the girls. It will be 
seen that, with the younger children, color and use are the 
strongest interests, and that form, size and substance are com- 
paratively insignificant until the tenth year, thus agreeing — 
to except the color interest — with the studies of Professors Binet 
and Barnes. Diagram I, which follows, gives the curve for men- 
tion of color. It will be seen that at all ages the girls mention 
color more often than the boys ; and that the curve of color- 
interest of the girls progresses more steadily than that of the 
boys. 



Boys Xi.iACF.AM I ciris 

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 



Boys— 
'7 8 9 



— DIAGRAM II Girls 

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 



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Diagram I. 
The curve for the portrait gives only the results of the chil- 



PERCSPTION OF CHILDREN. 



dren who named it correctly. In fact, most of the children who 
referred to the portrait at all named it correctly. Of the 60% 
who mentioned the portrait, more than 54% correctly identified 
it. "Christopher Columbus" and "the head of a woman" were 
oftenest mentioned by those giving incorrect answers. Dia- 
gram II, which follows, gives, therefore, only the result of the 

correct answers. 

Diagram II. 

Substance — paper, mucilage, ink, the material in the stamp 
— did not appeal strongly to the young children. At the age of 
seven, 15% of the boys and 10% of the girls mention sub- 
stance. The noteworthy fact about substance is that it is the 
only rubric in which the boys at all ages lead the girls. As 
will be seen from the other diagrams, the girls/ generally led 
the boys in the number of statements made about the stamp. 
Of the whole number of children tested, substance is mentioned 

by 51%. 

Diagram III. 

At the age of seven none of the children refer to the form of 
the stamp; and at the age of eight, none of the boys and but 
4% of the girls. The most rapid increase in form-iutere.st comes 
after the age of fourteen. Forty per cent, of the children men- 
tion form, about a third of whom mentioned forms bearing 
more or less resemblance to the form of the stamp. Diagram 
IV, which follows, gives the percentages of all the children 
mentioning form. 



Poys — 
7 8 9 



DIAGRAM III Girls 

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 





























































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Boys. 
7 8 9 



DIAGRAM IV Girts—. 

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 



SUBSTANCE 





























































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PERCEPTION OF CHILDREN. 



Diagram IV. 

Use — after color — was the oftenest mentioned of the qualities 
commonly studied in objects. At seven, 45% of the boys and 
nearly 47% of the girls mention the use of the stamp. Use 
seems to decrease until about the age of ten when there is man- 
ifest increase of interest with the girls until twelve and with 
the boys until between the ages of thirteen and fourteen years. 
After these ages there is general decrease, although at the age 
of seventeen, 20% of both sexes still mention the use of the 
stamp. The curves in diagram V agree in the main with those 
in Professor Barnes's study. 

Diagram V. 

The perforated edges — one of the characteristics of the stamp 
— were not noted by many of the young children. The girls 
surpassed the boys up to the age of twelve but thereafter the 
boys lead. A little more than 25% of the whole number of 
children tested mention perforation, as will be seen by diagram 
VI. 



Boys— 
7 8 9 



_ DIAGRAM V Girls 

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 



Boys^ 

7 8 9 



DIAGRAM V! Girls—, 

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 



,_ 

--^ — w— V — 



USE 



Diagram VI. 



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PERFORATION 



Size like form is not mentioned by the youngest children. 
At the age of seven none of the boys and but 4% of the girls 
allude to size, and at eight years only one-half of one per cent, 
of the boys and but 5% of the girls mention size. Less than 
25% of the whole number tested refer to size at all. 



9 PERCEPTION OF CHIIvDREN. 

Diagram VII. 
Cancellation marks, which would be means of identifying the 
stamp, were mentioned by 19% of the children. All the stamps 
given the children for observation had been used. Between 
the ages of nine and fourteen the boys most often refer to can- 
cellation marks; but before and after these ages the girls lead. 





;• 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 V 


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Boys- 


DIAGRAM VIII Girls 

10 11 12 13 14 15 1G 17 












































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&i::;i cancellation 

Diagram VIII. 

The ornamentations on the stamp were not frequenty ob- 
served. The small trefoils were noted by about 14% of the 
children, and chiefly by the older children; and the small 
scrolls by less than 8% of the children. The white parallel 
lines, the oval about the portrait, the triangles in the lower 
edges, and the shading of the stamp were also observed by a 
few of the older children; but as a rule the aesthetic features in 
the stamp were not perceived. 

Among miscellaneous facts perceived were the style of the 
hair, expression of the face in the portrait, where the stamps 
are made, penalty for using cancelled stamps, and where the 
stamp should be placed on the envelope. Some of the children 
drew the stamp (12% of the boys and 13% of the girls). Ap- 
parently some of them recognized their own inability to de- 
scribe the stamp with sufl&cient accuracy so that "one who had 
never seen it would know all about it," and they endeavored 
to supplement their written descriptions with what must have 
seemed to them a more graphic representation. One child 
in fact said: "If he would not know the stamp by what I say 
here is the picture below. ' ' And a reasonably accurate draw- 



PERCEPTION OF CHII^DREN. 9 

ing follows. Drawing was generally resorted to by the chil- 
dren who gave the least accurate written descriptions. 

The question may reasonably be asked, to what extent do 
the facts observed by the children represent their lines of in- 
terest; and, representing their lines of interest, to what extent 
should the same be taken into account in school instruction? 
Professor Barnes (i) maintains that children's interests in 
common objects develop according to pretty definite laws, and 
these laws he thinks should be determined and used as a basis 
of educational procedure. He thinks it quite possible to estab- 
lish a course of instruction for the seven-year-old child, for 
example, after we have made a sufficient number of such tests 
which will rest on a basis as scientific as our treatment ot 
typhoid fever. 

The lines of interest in the postage stamp, as indicated by 
the whole number of different statements by all the children, 
are : Word-inscriptions, color, number-inscriptions, portrait, 
substance, form, use, perforation, size, cancellation, and orna- 
mentations. To some extent the children perceive in the post- 
age stamp what they have been taught to perceive in common 
objects, so that the study may reflect the prevailing methods 
of the teachers rather than the dominant interests of the chil- 
dren. In most of the essential lines of observation the con- 
ceptions of the children widen with advance in years; use is 
the only rubric which vanishes as the children mature. 

Sex differences are the most marked features of the study. 
It will be noted that in all the essential lines of observation 
that the girls lead the boys; they not only tell more about the 
stamp, but in many instances their observations show a higher 
order of intellectual discrimination. They seem to surpass the 
boys in their knowledge of the postage stamp; and they cer- 
tainly surpass the boys in their ability to tell what they know 
about the stamp. Does this apparent superiority of the girls, 
asks Professor Barnes, mean that they are better observers than 
the boys, more studious than the boys, or have better powers 
of expression than the boys ? 

The study made in Berlin (2) some twenty-five years ago, 
which sought to ascertain the extent of the common knowledge 
of children upon entering school, throws some light on these 
questions. It is reported in the Berlin study that the easiest and 
most widely diffused concepts were commonest among girls; but 
that the more difficult, special and exceptional concepts were 
oftenest given by the boys. The girls excelled in nature and 
space concepts, but the boys excelled in number and religious 
concepts. Girls excelled in fairy tales, but boys could repeat 
more accurately the sentences said to them and the songs sung 
to them than the girls. 

G. Stanley Hall (11), who initiated the child study move- 



lO PERCEPTION OF CHILDREN. 

ment in the United States twenty-five years ago, repeated the 
Berlin test in the schools of Boston. He found that girls 
excel in knowledge of parts of the body, home, and family, and 
that their stories are more imaginative; but that their power to 
sing and articulate correctly from dictation is distinctly less 
than that of boys, as well as their acquaintance with numbers 
and animals. 

In the numerous studies on the reaction time of school chil- 
dren there is manifest superiority of girls in the matter of 
rapidity of perception. The ability to respond muscularly to 
a signal indicates a degree of intelligence, which may not be of 
the highest order. In his tests of the capacity of the two sexes 
to read rapidly, the late George J. Romanes (i8) found that 
women were not only able to read more rapidly than the men, 
but that they were able to give a better account of what they 
had read than the men. But he did not find that rapidity of 
reading was correlated with mental efficiency. In fact some ot 
his brightest subjects were the slowest readers, and some of his 
most rapid readers were his most stupid subjects. 

Havelock Ellis (8) has pointed out in this connection that 
women are much like children in their apitudes for the rapid 
accumulation of facts. He says : "In youth we read rapidly, 
but it is within the experience of many of us that on coming to 
reach adult age we come to read more and more slowly. It is 
as though in early age every statement was admitted immedi- 
ately and without inspection to fill the vacant chamber of the 
mind, while in adult age every statement undergoes an in- 
stinctive process of cross-examination. Every new fact seems 
to stir up the accumulated stores of facts among which it in- 
trudes, and so impedes rapidity of mental action. It is so with 
the impulse to action. In the simply organized mind this is 
direct and immediate." 

It is well known of course that girls attain their growth and 
that they mature physically before the boys, so that in most in- 
stances the ten-year-old girl is comparable with the twelve-year- 
old boy . In consequence the girls represent degrees of superiority 
which are more apparent than real, since the boys continue to 
develop after the girls have attained their maturity. What 
Bowditch, Porter, Peckham and others have pointed out with 
reference to the earlier attainment of girls in physical growth, 
holds true in a measure in the mental development of the two 
sexes. 

Then, also, girls surpass boys in their powers of expression. 
Buckle (5) has called attention to the fact of the ready wit and 
the quick power of perception common among women; and he 
attributes this superiority to a tendency of the feminine mind 
to start from ideas rather than from the patient collection of 
facts. He refers to the notable superiority of women in quick- 



PERCEPTION OF CHII^DREN. II 

ness of intelligence among the lower social classes of Europe; 
and, to a fact that is well known to every traveller, that in a 
foreign land one can always make his wants more readily 
known to the women than to the men. Not only is there 
greater facility in the use of language among girls than among 
boys, but speech defects — stuttering, stammering and the like 
— are three times greater among boys than among girls. The 
only difference among the sexes may be sex, but that differ- 
ence, after all, seems pretty profound. 

Bibliography. 

1. Barnes, Earl. Study of children's interests. Barnes's Studies 

in Education, Vol. I, pp. 203-212. 

2. Bartholomai und Schwabe. Vorstellungskreis der Berliner 

Kinder beim Eintritt in die Schule. Berlin Stadtisches Jahr- 
buch fiir 1870, pp. 59-77. 

3. BiNET, AiyFRED. La perception des longueues et des nombres 

chez quelques petits enfauts. Reinie Philosophique, July, 1890, 
Vol. XXX, pp. 68-81. 

4. BiNET, Alfred. Perception de I'enfant. Revue Philosophiquey 

Dec, 1890, Vol. XXX, pp. 582-611. 

5. Buckle, Henry Thomas. Influence of women on the progress of 

knowledge. In Miscellaneous works, Vol. I, London, 1897. 

6. Chandler, Katherine Agnes. Children's interests in plants. 

Barnes's Studies in Education, Vol. I, pp. 217-222. 

7. Dubois, Irene E. Comparison : [ways in which a horse and a 

cow are alike and unlike]. Pacific Educational Journal, '^o- 
vember, 1894, Vol X, pp. 511-522. 

8. Ellis, Havelock. Man and woman : a study in human second- 

ary sexual characters. London and New York, 1896, pp. 165- 
194. 

9. Greenwood, James Mickleborough. What children know. 

Proc. N. E. A., 1884, pp. 195-198. 

10. Hall, Granville Stanley. Adolescence. N. Y., 1904, Vol. 

II, pp. 134-231. 

11. Hall, Granville Stanley. Contents of children's minds on 

entering school. N. Y., 1893, pp. 56. 

12. Hartmann, Berthold. Die Analyse der kindlichen Gedanks- 

kries als die naturgemasse Grundlage der eisten Schulunter- 
richts. Annaberg, 1890, pp. 116. 

13. Hoyt, William A. Love of nature. Ped. Sent., October, 1894, 

Vol. Ill, pp. 61-86. 

14. Lange, Karl. Der Vorstellungskries unserer sechsjahrigen 

Kleinen. Allg. Schul-Zeitung (Jena), 1870, p. 327. 

15. LeclERE, A. Description d'un objet. L' Annde Psychologique, 

1897, Vol. IV, pp. 379-389. 

16. O'Shea, Michael Vincent. Interests in childhood. Proc. N. 

E. A., 1896, pp. 873-881. 

17. Preyer, Wilhelm. Mental development in the child. N. Y., 

1895. PP- 30 47- 

18. Romanes, George John. Mental differences between men and 

women. Nineteenth Century, May, 1887, Vol. XXI, pp. 654-672. 

19. Shaw, Edward Richard. Comparative study on children's in- 

terests. Child Study Monthly, July-August, 1896, Vol II, pp. 
152-167. 



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